Larsen leads the Pro Lites class in the MX Nationals after round one.

Watching PJ Larsen in action at the opening round of the 2010 Rockstar MX Nationals was an eye opener for many in the industry last weekend, the young American riding his JDR Motorex KTM to the overall victory in the Pro Lites class and asserting himself as a clear championship favourite.

Larsen has taken the unconventional route of transferring from the Unites States to Australia, however judging from his round one performance it may be a move that nets him a national title as well as the experience of a lifetime while living abroad.

We won’t hand him the number one plate just yet, but Larsen was dominant on his way to 1-11-1 placings at Horsham in Victoria after qualifying first, his only hiccup coming with a first turn crash in race one.

MotoOnline.com.au gave him a call today to speak about the weekend and to find out just how he’s settling into life in Australia and the factory JDR Motorex KTM team.

You had a solid debut to your season in Australia last weekend with the overall victory in the Pro Lites class, so how was the experience of your first Aussie MX Nationals event?

Yeah, I’m really happy with it. It was a good weekend, I qualified first in the Lites class with the fastest time of the day, won the first moto and the third moto, but just had a couple of crashes in the second moto. All in all it was just a matter of survival when it started to rain during the day, basically making sure that we didn’t lose the championship at the first round.

Was the Horsham round the first time you had ever seen an Aussie National? Did you know what to expect, or were you completely new to the scene?

I was fresh to the scene, man. I had never been to a National in Australia before, only the Super X race in Brisbane at the end of last year. It was a good weekend, for sure.

So what did you think of the Nationals here in Australia considering it was your first one?

It was really good, you know. I actually enjoyed the format of three 20-minute motos and it’s cool that it changes up every weekend, because I think it obviously makes for a lot better racing. It’s good fun, a challenge for us as riders, and it pretty much means that we need to be more consistent at the rounds where we do more than two motos.

You came into the weekend under the radar, nobody was really certain how you were outdoors or how you go on the Lites bike, but now you’re the title favourite. Does that add pressure at this point?

Ah, no not really. It doesn’t change the way I look at things, but I did enjoy coming in under the radar and not having many people talk about me before the season. Obviously I’ll get a little bit more publicity now, but I’ll be sticking to my usual training program and I’ll worry about each race as it comes.

Larsen is a new personality in the MX Nationals paddock.

You’re with the JDR Motorex KTM team here in Oz, so are you all settled in there now that the first round is out of the way?

Yeah, everything is going really well. I’m happy with the team and my mechanic Luke Sanderson. Like I said, as a team we need to take it week by week, but we’ll try to keep the ball rolling like we did last weekend then we’ll be all good for the series.

You finished fifth at the Anaheim 3 round of AMA Supercross this year as a replacement for Tommy Searle on the factory KTM team, so is your JDR bike developed solely in Australia or do you have assistance from the U.S team?

It’s purely on the JDR team over here when it comes to my bike for the Nationals. I’d say that we have the best bike set-up in Australia right now, it’s been a process of testing and trying a lot of things with the team. Obviously the team were on Yamahas last year and now they’re on KTMs, so we’ve just been developing our own settings and that’s all it’s came down to.

One thing that you have to do this year is learn a heap of new tracks, so is that something you like? You obviously picked up Horsham quickly in qualifying!

Yeah, it’s going really well so far. Last weekend was my first time at Horsham and I adapted really quickly, so I think that’s something I’m really good at, going to a track and learning it quick – which I proved at Horsham in that first practice session. I’m looking forward to going to all of the outdoor tracks this season and learning them, I’ve heard a lot of good things about them so it should be good.

Alright, no worries mate. We’ll see you at the Canberra round in a couple of weeks time…

Yeah for sure, sounds good. Thanks!